Hinata placed her hand on the glass table as Michel projected her memories onto it and once again Hinata experienced the past hidden behind her pain.
The academy was smaller than Michel expected.
The floors were polished wood. The walls smelled of chalk and paper and a faint tang of sweat. There were no statues. No shrines. No bloodline expectations written into the beams.
It was the first place that didn't feel like it belonged to the Hyūga.
Michel felt the difference immediately. The spiritual pressure here was lighter. The threads are more fluid. The children are more alive.
And Hinata—though still quiet—breathed differently in these halls. Here she can make real connections, here she can make friends.
She struggled at first. Finally, halfway through the year, her chakra awakened, tiny at first, but enough to get started. Her chakra was clumsy, scattered. But it responded. Slowly.
She lit a leaf. Hold it with trembling fingers. She formed the basic hand signs.
Michel cheered her silently every time her fingers aligned correctly. "You're doing it," he thought. "Even if it's late. Even if it's hard. You're doing it."
But when the instructors asked her to activate the Byakugan… Nothing came. Her eyes remained soft. Passive. No glow. No veins. No vision beyond vision.
She bowed in apology. The teachers exchanged glances, but said little. "Some awaken later," one murmured. "Let her grow."
In the Hyuga compound the clan was not so gentle. Within the Hyuga Clan, scrolls were unsealed. Whispers passed from elder to elder.
And Michel—though he could not always listen—felt the shift. A cold decision crystallizing.
Hiashi stood in the central hall of the Hyūga. He listened as the elders spoke.
"She cannot awaken the Byakugan. She cannot inherit the clan." … "And without the seal, she is vulnerable. A risk to our bloodline." .. "Even now the Cloud is still watching. You know this."
Hiashi's fingers tightened around the sleeve of his robe. "She is my daughter."
His father's voice answered like ice. "She is Hyūga. Nothing more."
Hinata pulled her hand away from the crystal table, her breath catching. "I… I don't think I want to see the next part."
Michel hesitated. "I… I don't want to show it either. But I know… it's important that you do."
Hinata's voice trembled. "But you already told me Shikashi was the one who tampered with my Byakugan. Isn't that all there is?"
Michel shook his head slowly. "Unfortunately, no. And… you'll probably be angry after. But it's something you need to see."
Hinata clutched Kuro tightly to her chest, holding her breath. Then, though her hand shook, she placed it back on the crystal table, steeling herself for what was to come.
The ritual was set. At dawn, in the sacred chamber. Just as it had been done for centuries.
When the moment came, he followed. He would not let her suffer alone. The chamber was cold.
Hinata stood silently, dressed in ceremonial white. She said nothing. Her eyes were calm. Trusting. Too calm. As if her soul had gone quiet to protect itself.
Hiashi stood behind her, flanked by the elders and seal-bearers.
Michel hovered close.
He had seen this before—from a distance. He had felt it on Neji, long ago. But this time… it was Hinata.
As the seal was prepared, Michel extended a thread. Just one.
He reached through Hinata's soul toward her father. He had done this before—with Kuro, with ease. He had revealed bonds. Strengthened them.
This time, he wanted to remind Hiashi: That this girl was not a burden. Not a weakness. But his daughter. He acted in hopes that if he strengthened their bond then Hiashi would stop this.
He reached—And was burned. Pain. Not in his soul—but in something deeper. Like a thread fraying at the base of reality itself. The silver thread twisted, then blackened, recoiling like a snake.
Michel staggered spiritually, stunned.
What he had felt was not rejection. It was rot, an ancient decay nestled beneath the bond, too deep for either soul to see.
The connection between father and daughter was tainted. Not broken, twisted. Something unseen devoured the space between them.
And as the seal was carved into her skin, Michel saw it
A mark behind the mark.
A darkness that wasn't chakra. A hand behind the bloodline. A whisper deeper than Hyūga tradition.
Shikashi.
Michel reeled. His threads recoiled. His form flickered. This wasn't an imbalance. This wasn't trauma. This was interference. A deliberate corruption.
A curse laid not on the body—but on the spiritual core of a lineage The elders did not know. Hiashi did not know. But Shikashi had marked her—through Michel himself.
Through their bond. Through their merger. Through the silver. And now he knew Hinata's soul carried more than just light.
After the ritual, Hinata was escorted to her room. The mark was hidden beneath her bangs. She said nothing.
Hinata didn't realize at first, but tears had begun to well in her eyes. The memory she had just witnessed opened a flood of long-buried emotions—moments she had unconsciously suppressed. She remembered when her father sent her to live in the branch family's quarters. How, except for Kuro, she was left completely alone within the Hyūga clan.
She remembered Michel that night, trying to comfort her. But neither of them had the strength to speak. They simply sat together in silence—heavy, aching silence that lasted over an hour. Kuro rested quietly on her lap, occasionally brushing Hinata's cheek with her muzzle, trying to soothe her.
Then Hinata spoke, her voice trembling. "So… you destroyed the last connection I had with my father. One that had survived, even after Shikashi's curse."
Her words were sharp. She was angry. Not entirely at him, but Michel was there, vulnerable, and that made him an easy target. She saw him crying—truly crying—for the first time. It hurt more than she expected.
Michel sat slumped in his chair, drained, eyes full of regret. "You don't know how sorry I am… If I had known more, tested more, studied more… But I had to try something—anything—to save you from that fate. I failed. And in doing so, I destroyed the only real bond you still had with your family."
Seeing him like that… Hinata couldn't do it. She couldn't yell. He had always loved her. Always tried.
So she cried instead—openly, brokenly. Kuro licked the tears from her cheeks until, exhausted, Hinata finally fell asleep in the Silver World.
[KURO IMAGE]